
While it has been asserted lately that younger people like to read magazines, according to Mediamark Research & Intelligence, the average age of overall magazine readers is increasing, as the average age has went up from 44.7 to 45.0, as of the Spring of 2008, in contrast to Spring 2007.
Julian Baim, chief research officer at Mediamark Research & Intelligence, said concerning the numbers that it doesn't necessarily imply that magazines are no
longer drawing younger readers, because if a magazine is increasing in circulation, it could skew the numbers by making the median age grow.
What that means is there may be more younger readers in the past, but the growth in overall readership makes the average age higher.
I can see that working for a growing magazine, but if the magazine isn't growing much, and the average age is increasing, that does mean younger people are abandoning the magazine. Each magazine would have to be taken individually to see if that's the case.
There's also the print versus digital version of the magazine that has to be taken into account.
Overall it seems that while there is a lot of pressure on the print industry in general, magazines remain the strongest of the bunch.
Marketers need to look at demographics within the individual magazine itself to make determinations for advertising, as the aging population can make it look like younger readers are abandoning it, when in reality there are more than in the past.







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